Police arrest alleged masterminds behind orangutan deaths

East Kalimantan Police have arrested and named two people suspects, PCH, a Malaysian, and his Indonesian cohort, W, in connection with the recent death of several orangutans in plantation areas in Kalimantan.

“According to earlier reports, PCH acted as the mastermind for the killing. He hired two locals to carry out the killings,” East Kalimantan Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wisnu Sutirta said Thursday as quoted by tempo.co.

Wisnu added that PCH, the manager of PT Khaleda Agroprima Malindo, believed the orangutans were a pest that could ruin his company’s assets in the local forests, and had thus made efforts to exterminate them.

Wisnu said police were seeking information on where the money came from to pay for the killings.